


Den of Jackals

by misura



Category: The Edge Series - Ilona Andrews
Genre: M/M, Mission Fic, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash, Undercover as a Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-09 07:46:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18633862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: "I don't disagree about this being ridiculous," Declan said. "I mean, have you seen my hat?"





	Den of Jackals

"This is ridiculous," William said.

Declan's gaze swept slowly up and down William's body, taking in his clothes - inasfar as what he was wearing deserved the term. It wouldn't have bothered William even if they'd told him that he had to go naked, and he knew that Declan only looked to judge the effectiveness of the disguise. Still.

"Enjoying the view?" Humor was tricky, but with Declan, William felt comfortable enough to try, to experiment a little. He enjoyed getting Declan to smile. It made William feel good, too, like he belonged.

"I don't disagree about this being ridiculous," Declan said. "I mean, have you seen my hat?"

They weren't going to talk about William's outfit, then. That was fine. They could talk about Declan's hat instead. "I have, and I think calling it 'ridiculous' is like calling a pair of slayers 'a small problem'."

Declan grinned. "They were to us."

There was nothing William could say to that, so he nodded once and went back to memorizing the maps and the list of people they might encounter as either guests or merchandise.

 

Slavers weren't usually a problem requiring the Red Legion, but this particular organization had made a mistake, resulting in one of its customers ending up dead.

William wasn't surprised. Having grown up at Hawk's had made him 'safe', but he knew perfectly well that if anyone tried to enslave him, he wouldn't meekly stand by and let them. The only surprise was that this particular changeling had waited until he'd been sold to go into _rending_.

_Unless they didn't have any other choice._ William wasn't stupid. If the Adrianglian government had truly wanted to end slavery, they would have done so by now. The only reason he and Declan had been sent on this mission was because of what had happened to the customer.

If some slavers had found a way to control changelings more effectively than the government, that was a problem warranting some time and effort. _That_ was worth risking his and Declan's lives for.

William didn't mind. He'd stopped caring about 'fair' a long time ago, along with almost everything else.

To him, this was just another job, no more, no less.

 

From the moment they stepped into the room, they drew people's attention. It was the one reason William had argued against Declan accompanying him instead of someone else.

With someone else - _anyone_ else, William could have been the distraction. By playing up the fact that he was a changeling, he could have ensured that people forgot that he'd come with a companion, at least for a while.

He had expected Declan to assign someone else to this mission. Perhaps one of the women. William could have pretended that she was keeping him in line with sex, that his loyalty had been bought with her body. He had been worried, a little, about being able to keep up the illusion without overstepping the boundaries of what was allowed and what wasn't.

Instead, Declan had decided to take on the part of William's master and owner himself.

That still could have worked, if Declan had tried to look inconspicuous, inconsequential. William didn't think Declan could have pulled off looking soft and harmless, or like someone who let William fuck him to keep him happy.

"I was right," he growled under his breath, as Declan had yet rebuffed another woman expressing a blatant interest in sex. "This is ridiculous."

Declan put a hand on his head. "And I still don't disagree. Now, another five minutes, and we'll go and have a look upstairs. Think you can handle that?"

William wondered how Declan thought they were going to manage to get past the guards. It had been made clear that the rooms upstairs were off-limits for guests, and sneaking off without anyone noticing hardly seemed a viable option.

"Will?"

"That's not my name," William said. He could only hope no one who was watching them had been able to lip read. "Maybe you should worry a little less about me and a little more about yourself."

Declan chuckled and removed his hand. "You're fine." He sounded relieved.

Willian decided he'd never understand humans, even the one he actually liked.

 

Getting past the guards turned out to be a piece of cake. William didn't quite understand how Declan managed it: there was some money involved, and Declan touched William a couple of times, the way he might if the two of them were going to mate, and the guards quickly went from looking suspicious to looking amused and maybe a little excited, as if _they_ were going to mate.

William decided to ignore them, focusing on Declan. Declan was safe, and until things went wrong, William supposed he might as well trust Declan to know what he was doing.

Unlike the guards, he knew Declan had no interest in mating with him. William knew that if Declan had, he would have said 'yes', but since Declan didn't, William didn't either. They could still be friends.

"Which way?" Declan asked, his voice lowered as they reached the top of the stairs.

William's nose picked up a number of scents. Unless he'd missed something in the briefing, which was unlikely, their objective didn't have any particular smell, though. This wasn't like tracking down a spy, or hunting an escaped prisoner.

He shook his head. None of the smells told him where they might find an explanation for the changeling slave.

Declan grumbled under his breath and dragged William left, releasing him as soon as they were no longer visible to any guards who might have been looking at them from downstairs.

"You still doing okay?"

William rolled his eyes. It was a gesture he'd copied from Declan. "Can we just agree that if I'm in trouble, I'll let you know, and you will do the same?"

"I don't get in trouble," Declan said.

"Neither do I," William said, even though that wasn't quite true. "At least, none that I can't get out of again in a hurry." That was, most of the time. "So ... we're looking for an office, yes? Papers?"

Declan nodded. "A locked room, probably."

That should narrow it down, William hoped. He started trying doors.

Declan hesitated for a moment, as if he wanted to say something more, then appeared to think better of it.

 

All in all, it had turned out one of the easiest missions they'd ever run. William almost felt disappointed.

"A changeling assassin." Declan shook his head. "Brilliant, in a way. Bribing a slaver to play along and approach the prospective buyer, getting the man to pay for the privilege of being murdered."

William considered pointing out that at the time, the man had thought he was paying for the privilege of getting to own a changeling. As far as William was concerned, he'd gotten what was coming to him.

Declan might not see it that way. If he didn't, William had rather not hear him say so out loud.

"Oh well, I guess it beats the alternative of some kind of control device," Declan said. "Some people will be disappointed, some will be relieved, and the two of us will get a nice bonus."

"What about the assassin?"

Declan shrugged. "Not our problem. If they're smart, they never show up in Andrianglia again. We know what they look like now from their file."

Declan assumed that they'd survived, then. That they weren't like William, simply taking orders, but that they were working as an independent party, taking jobs they'd chosen themselves. William wondered what it would be like to live like that, to be allowed to make your own choices all the time.

He wondered if they had friends, a family.

"Will," Declan said, touching his shoulder. "You did well. Don't overthink things."

William brushed off Declan's hand. "I'm not stupid."

"I didn't say you were," Declan said. "Come on. Let me buy you a nice dinner."

"I don't want dinner. I want a woman." Or a man, but that wasn't something William was going to say out loud. Besides, he'd never seen Declan with a man.

"I'm not going to buy you a woman. Be reasonable."

Strictly speaking, William knew that wasn't true. The first time he'd visited a place where you could buy a woman's company for a few hours, Declan had come along to make sure everything went smoothly, to prevent any misunderstandings from happening - and to keep William from getting cheated on the amount of money he had to pay, although William had only found out about that bit later, when he'd gone back by himself and gotten charged triple, by someone who hadn't been there last time.

He sighed. "Fine. You can buy me dinner."

"Kind and gracious as ever." Declan grinned. "Trust me. You'll enjoy yourself. There's this new place I've been wanting to try out for a while. Expensive, but it comes highly recommended."

_By whom?_ William wondered, but didn't ask. "I already agreed. You don't need to talk me into it anymore."

"I only want to get you excited."

_Try stripping naked._ Not that William would do anything even if Declan did. Hawk's had drilled that into him. "I'm very excited. Trust me. On the inside, I'm doing cartwheels. I'm just that good at hiding my emotions."

Declan pulled him into a quick hug.

William kept his body unmoving, allowing the contact but knowing better than to return the hug. Nothing good would come of that. He'd only push things too far, and then Declan would stop being his friend, and that would suck a whole lot more than making do with a woman or a fantasy when who he really wanted was Declan.

"Never change, Will."

_I'm a changeling. That's not an instruction I can follow._

William sighed. "So where is this fancy restaurant of yours?"


End file.
